Workout of the Day

Aug 14

Warning Signs

Your body is equipped with a rather magnificent advanced warning system. It can predict injury, highlight dysfunction, and can even help you locate the source or site of injury or dysfunction. It’s called pain.

It’s not perfect, by any means. In some ways, pain is still a poorly understood phenomenon, and one which can sometimes be perplexing and behave inconsistently. But on the whole, we find that pain gives us, at the very least, a blip on the radar for incoming injury or persisting dysfunction (these two often come hand-in-hand). It works pretty well, and it’s the best we’ve got.

So that nagging shoulder pain that popped up six months ago that you’ve brushed off as “part of getting old,” or that pain in your knees that seems to always be there when you wake up, but you’ve brushed off as “no big deal” -- these are warnings for an incoming threat or problem. And you’re in the radar room saying, “eh, I’m sure it’s fine -- I’m not going to worry about it right now.” I can tell you right now, this approach generally does not go well.

But the same as the person in the radar room, keyed in and looking for signs and signals of incoming threats, it’s in your best interest, when a threat appears, to remain calm and make a plan for how to handle it. I see the two extremes frequently: one person receives the warning signs and ignores them entirely, the other receives the warning signs and takes it as a sign to abandon ship, because surely doom is near. The key is that these warning signs give you a heads-up before all is lost. They let you know that the head of your humerus sits forward in the socket long before your shoulder is torn to bits, and they let you know that your tight quads and hip flexors are causing your kneecap to track poorly long before you’ve worn any holes in your joints. And ultimately, they give you an opportunity to change something so that the bad stuff that’s lurking around the corner never actually gets here.

You may find that tracking down the root cause of your pain is easier said than done, and perhaps your attempts to save the day before injury strikes will sometimes prove unsuccessful. Nondescript pain in your shoulder is a few steps removed from “the head of your humerus sits forward in the socket,” and the translation can be difficult. It may take time. You may need a professional. It may take some trial and error, and it will certainly take some effort to make change.But the worst thing you can do is ignore the warning signs. They’re there for a reason.